At a West Side town hall meeting Saturday, a panel of elected officials and community activists decried Chicago’s crisis in elementary grade truancy and absenteeism, and vowed to work on reforms that could save countless children from failure in school and life.

West Side aldermen Emma Mitts, 37th, and Jason Ervin, 28th, pledged to ask the City Council education committee to examine whether the Chicago Public Schools should re-introduce the truancy officers and outreach workers who were disbanded in a cost-cutting measure two decades ago.

The truancy officers were “like a light that can save a child’s life,” Mitts said. “You can’t beat one-on-one conversation. … These kids need somebody to care about them.”

Saturday’s meeting was convened by state Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, D-Aurora, in response to a recent Tribune investigation that found that nearly 32,000 K-8 grade students in Chicago -- or roughly 1 in 8 -- miss a four weeks or more of class per year, while many simply vanish from school without a trace.

“This issue is germane to Chicago but it bleeds throughout the state of Illinois, said Chapa LaVia, who added that agencies ranging from the Chicago Housing Authority to the state Department of Children and Family Services have said they will participate in a legislative task force she is forming to push for solutions. Chicago Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett is also on board “but we have to hold her feet to the fire,” Chapa LaVia said.

The devastating pattern of elementary grade absenteeism disproportionately affects African-Americans and children with disabilities, and costs the district millions in funding keyed to attendance, the Tribune found. The newspaper documented weaknesses in state law, breakdowns in communication between government agencies and the indifference of city officials who abandoned anti-truancy initiatives even as tens of thousands of children disappeared from the attendance rolls.

“This is as much a civil rights issue as a human rights issue,” West Side NAACP leader Windy Pearson said at the event at Austin Town Hall, 5610 W. Lake St. “Without wraparound services that connect them to schools, children fall between the cracks. This is a pipeline to the streets and jails.”

Ervin said he wanted the City Council to research best practices among anti-truancy workers, and also study the cost-benefits and financial impact of deploying staff or even parent volunteers to retrieve absent kids.

“Is the truancy officer of 1990 the same thing we need in 2013? I can’t answer that,” Ervin said. But he noted that school funding increases when more kids attend: “We’re tripping over dollars to pick up nickels,” he added.

West Side community activist Remel Terry called on community residents and businesses to help tackle truancy – and not simply leave the matter to lawmakers and officials. Neighborhood parents should volunteer at schools or donate coats for families who might not be getting their kids to school because they lacked proper clothes, she said.

“We as a community need to stand up and fight for ourselves,” Terry said.

Chicago Teachers Union political activities director Stacy Davis Gates was one of several speakers who warned that the city’s K-8 grade absenteeism problem could be exacerbated by the city’s plan to close scores of underutilized schools.

Students who already have a tenuous connection to their school may need to cross gang boundaries or face other difficulties getting to new, unfamiliar facilities – and the district does not have a robust system in place for tracking and retrieving the youth who go missing, Gates said.

Several of the panelists directly linked elementary school truancy to children being the perpetrators and victims of the violent crime that is raking Chicago’s African-American neighborhoods.

In the 15th Police District on the city’s West Side, there has been a sharp spike this year in the number of youth picked up by police during school hours, said state Rep. Camille Lilly, D-Chicago. “There are increasing numbers of children who are not getting the education they need to build our country. I want to address the issue now and ensure we do it together.”

West Side state Rep. LaShawn Ford, D-Chicago, said that as a former teacher he knows elementary students are hurt by every day of school they miss “because the pages continue to turn. Every day builds on the previous day and leads to the next.”